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Click on this link The Flu to read about the famous influenza pandemic of 1918-1919.
Terms: bootlegging, Spanish Flu, 18th Amendment, 19th Amendment, 21st Amendment,
Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Red Scare,
speakeasies, organized crime, flappers, cloche, Teapot Dome, Harlem Renaissance, temperance,
Jazz Age, protective tariff, The Spirit of St. Louis, scofflaw
The Invisible Empire, racketeering
The 18th Amendment- "To pass a law means nothing, to enforce the law means everything"-Unknown historian
hun rule association.gifPBS Documentary Prohibition Here
Click here to read about the pros v. cons of the drinking age in America now.
President Warren Harding
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"Less government in business and more business in government."

"My gosh, this is a hell of a job! I have no trouble with my enemies.

I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends,

my goddamn friends... they are the ones that keep me walking the floors nights".

"Stabilize America first, prosper America first, think of America first,

and exalt America first".

President Warren G. Harding

The US had a weak economy after WW1. Here were some of President Harding's proposals:

1. Proposed a national budget

2. Reducing US debt

3. Lowering taxes as well as having a protective tariff to protect US jobs

4. Relief for farmers who were struggling after the Great War

5. Immigration restrictions in an attempt to protect jobs for Americans


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Photo of President Harding, General Pershing and members of the Army War College taken in the fall of 1921.
external image 20s+teapot+dome.giffrom google images

Calvin Coolidge- "Keep cool with Coolidge" 1923-1929

external image calvin-coolidge_114099t.jpgfrom google images.
President Calvin Coolidge

-"It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country,

for him to know that he is not a great man".

-"The fundamental precept of liberty is toleration".

-"The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten".

-"Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped".

-"The power to tax is the power to destroy. A government which lays taxes on

the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is

not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny".

President Calvin Coolidge
  • Coolidge took a stand for African Americans and Native Americans,
  • Was pro business, was for less taxes,
  • Wanted to regulate new industries (Radio and Aircraft)
Coolidge with tribal leaders.jpg

Crime during the 1920's
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Flapper Fashion click on the photo below!
flapper style poster.jpgAdvertisment for makeup
flappers.jpg
coca-cola.jpg


cloche.jpgA cloche

JAZZ!
Click on the photo Louis Armstrong to go to a website comparing Jazz Music with American Democracy!
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Jazz Music:
  • Evolved from African and European styles of music
  • Very popular in Europe. Was introduced by African American dough-boys to the French during World War 1.
  • Considered a very "American" style and also considered very rebellious (would later be outlawed in Nazi Germany)
  • Helped to bridge the racial gap in America as it was popular with people from all races; integrated before the military, baseball or schools in the US

countee-cullen.jpgclick on the photo of the Poet Countee Cullen
And read one of Countee Cullen's poems below:

Thoughts in a Zoo By Countee Cullen

They in their cruel traps, and we in ours,
Survey each others rage, and pass the hours
Commiserating each the others woe,
To mitigate his own pains fiery glow.
Man could but little proffer in exchange
Save that his cages have a larger range.
That lion with his lordly, untamed heart
Has in some man his human counterpart,
Some lofty soul in dreams and visions wrapped,
But in the stifling flesh securely trapped.
Gaunt eagle whose raw pinions stain the bars
That prison you, so men cry for the stars!
Some delve down like the mole far underground,
(Their nature is to burrow, not to bound),
Some, like the snake, with changeless slothful eye,
Stir not, but sleep and smoulder where they lie.
Who is most wretched, these caged ones, or we,
Caught in a vastness beyond our sight to see?


F. Scott Fitzgerald
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A great version of the song "Summertime" written by George Gershwin for Porgy and Bess



Maxfield Parrish was a famous painter from Philadelphia. See one of his most famous works below titled Daybreak -1922
Daybreak.jpg

art_nouveau.jpg
art nouveau 2What do you notice about the above Art Nouveau pieces?
belgium building art nouveau.jpgArt Nouveau style building in Belgium

What did you notice about the Art Deco pieces below?
art_deco_perfume_poster.jpg
bauhausposter.jpg
art_deco3.jpgEmpire_State_Building_(HDR).jpg

Watch one of the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons called "Steamboat Willy".

and another called "The Karnival Kid". In this one you hear Mickey "speak" for the first time. The hotdogs are kind of weird.....


Read a short biography on "Lucky Lindy" here

Gertrude Ederle after she successfully swam the English Channel on August 6th,1926.


Clip of "Little Miss Poker Face" Helen Wills

The "Manassa Mauler", Jack Dempsey


Click hear to learn more about the boxing legend Jack Dempsey



Some other famous people from the 1920's:
Helen Wills, Jack Dempsey, Charles Lindbergh, Gertrude Ederle
helen_wills.png jack_dempsey.jpglindberg.jpgederle-gertrude.jpgSpirit_Of_St_Louis2.jpg



Some 1920's Film clips

1920's Test Review